London music festival to highlight Korean artists

A series of events showcasing Korean classical music, pop and gugak are planned throughout the city as part of the annual City of London Festival, which will take place June 22-July 17.

It is a brand new project that the festival is starting since a new director ― Paul Gudgin who led the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 1999 to 2007 ― took charge in April last year.

“We are creating a strand in the 2014 City of London Festival called ‘Seoul in The City’ that will showcase the cultural life of Seoul and South Korea by bringing to London a broad selection of outstanding Korean performers and presenting them in high status locations in the city,” the festival’s Korean partner AtoBiz said in a press release.

“We believe the festival creates the perfect opportunity to showcase and contrast the rapidly developing cultural life of Seoul with the well-established and world-renowned cultural life of London.”

The “Seoul in The City” program is divided into three themes: K-Theatre, K-Classic and Dynamic Korea.

Highlights of the K-Classic events are the concert at St. Paul’s Cathedral by conductor Chung Myung-whun and London Symphony Orchestra and a solo recital by up-and-coming pianist Kim Sun-wook.

This is the first time that the festival, which has over 50 years of history, is making a direct link to a foreign city and introducing artists from there, the organizers explained.

Aimed at making music more accessible for Londoners and visitors, the festival makes use of the city’s interesting spaces and major icons such as St. Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London as performance venues.